"The key to executing a successful multichannel campaign is to know your audience, help them rather than sell to them and create meaningful content that shares the brand story appropriately across channels."

Vyvanse prepares to lead ADHD class

Shire has amassed a 560-person sales force to launch its new ADHD drug Vyvanse.The sales team began targeting specialist physicians treating ADHD including pediatricians, pediatric neurologists and psychiatrists early last month.

The Vyvanse sales force is comprised of members who have experience selling other Shire ADHD products such as Adderall, Adderall XR and Daytrana, said Shire spokesman Matthew Cabrey, as well as new additions. “We have enhanced the sales force, it's grown as we have anticipated the launch of Vyvanse,” Cabrey told MM&M.

Shire's CEO Matthew Emmens said he is hopeful the drug will be able to capture 50% market share by early next decade.

“I have challenged my marketing and sales people,” Emmens told Reuters. “It's not a target. But it's an aspiration.”

Emmens said he is “very confident” Shire will be able to switch patients to the new drug from its top-selling Adderall XR, which at 30% is the current market leader among ADHD drugs. Adderall XR took in sales of $864 million in 2006 but faces patent expiration in 2009. Shire is banking on Vyvanse to take Adderall XR's place.

Shire is expected to sell Vyvanse at $3.40 a day, around the same price as Adderall XR. Emmens declined to forecast how quickly a switch might occur, but said analysts were expecting a similar pattern patients made to once-daily Adderall XR from its predecessor, Adderall, when 70% of patients converted in the first 18 months.

“In some ways the market is more favorable now than it was then,” Emmens said noting that Adderall XR had only four months to become established before generic Adderall was launched. Adderall XR also faced competition from rival treatment, Johnson & Johnson's Concerta. Vyvanse is poised to get a boost this fall when Concerta loses patent protection.

Vyvanse's selling point is that the drug is less open to abuse because it cannot be metabolized until it reaches the stomach.

Next Article in Pharmaceutical

Did you miss January's Top 40 Healthcare Transformers
issue? Read how these inventors, strategists, entrepreneurs and wonks are challenging, disrupting and otherwise transforming the healthcare business. And join us April 30 to honor them at the Transforming Healthcare Dinner. Click here.